Security Scan and Audit on Linux VPS

The security guard of a server or Linux-based VPS is necessary and mandatory. Not long ago some of the deface web activities became a hot conversation in the world because some of the large telecommunication companies’ websites were exposed to deface web attacks. Therefore, you should consider some important security features when to decide to purchase a hosting plan.

Five Web Server Security Features Every Webmaster Should Have

Backup

A good web host is the one that provides manual and automatic backup feature. If your site does a lot of changes and updates every day, consider a daily backup feature. This will allow you restore the latest condition of your website quickly in case your web server goes down.

Uptime

It will be disserving your business if you get your site down. Having your site stays online is the meaning of uptime. So make sure that your host can ensure you the server is 100% uptime. Instead, consider a CDN service when getting a hosting plan.

Secure Datacenter

Nature does not rule out the possibility of earthquake, hurricane, or power shortage happens on the physical server area. So, be prepared for such environment condition is a good idea to secure diesel power generators, facilities, and other protection measures by considering the geographical area of your web server’s datacenter.

RAID

Manual Reboot

Commonly, a manual reboot feature is a service from a VPS and dedicated server plan. This feature allows you to use a control panel to restart your server when you are in the process of making some significant updates.

What is Lynis?

Lynis is a free security tool for auditing and hardening Linux/Unix System. Broadly speaking, the Lynis work process after its installation will perform scan and test as well as collect all of the security on the installed OS.

Every company sets and configure the security on the server or a Linux-based VPS manually. Most of the companies prefer to use one of the most powerful server security tools for Security Audit and Hardening on their Linux-based cloud server (VPS) like Lynis.

The final result of the Lynis scan process will provide the information in some reports and suggestions to improve the security of the system.

Some Linux distros which are compatible with Lynis:

CentOS

MacOS X, Mageia, Mandriva

Fedora Core, FreeBSD

Gentoo

OpenBSD, OpenSolaris, openSUSE, Oracle Linux

Debian, DragonFlyBSD

HPUX

Linux Mint

NetBSD

Kali, Knoppix

And other distros.

Lynis supports audit software programs such as:

Database servers: MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL

Web servers: Apache, Nginx

Time daemons: dntpd, ntpd, timed

Lynis Installation Process

The installation process of Lynis is fairly easy as well as to use it. Here’s the guide to Lynis installation on the Linux-based cloud server (VPS).

Step 1: The first step is to update the Linux system via root access.

For Ubuntu & Debian:

Apt-get update

For Redhat, Centos, Fedora:

Yum update

Step 2: The Next process of Lynis installation

For Debian/Ubuntu:

Apt-get install lynis

For RedHat/CentOS and Fedora:

Yum install lynis

Running Lynis

When you run Lynis the first time after its installation I recommend you to use the -c parameter, in which the -c parameter works to command Lynis to test, scan, as well as checking the security of the system.

The following screenshots below are the preview of the Lynis scan process:

Lynis Scan ProcessLynis Scan ProcessThe Final Result of Lynis Scan

For a more optimal protection, make sure you perform the Security scan process on the server or VPS periodically and update the latest version of Lynis.

Security Scan and Audit on Linux VPS was last modified: July 18th, 2017 by